Sudan Archive

III. 3. IX. THE GUHAYNA GROUP 281

the Masruh, or "roaming tribes." The Banu Salim, again, have eight sub-

divisions, viz.:

1. Ahamidah (Ahmadi)....It is said to contain about 3500 men. Its

principal sub-clan is the Hadari.

2. Hawazim (Hazimi), the rival tribe, 3000 in number: it is again

divided into Muzayni and Zahiri.

6. Mahamid (Mahmadi), 8000.

7. Rahalah (Rihayh), 1000.

8. Timam (Tamimi). The mere occurrence of the name "Hawazim," or Hawazma

{sing. Hazmi), might be a mere coincidence, but when we find in

conjunction with it Ahamda^ and Mahamid^, both names of Bakkara

or semi-BAKKARA tribes, and "Rahalah," which is evidently the same as Rowahla (sing. Rahli), one of the subtribes of the Kababish (among whom, as we shall see, the 'Atawia also are ancestrally

connected with the Bakkara), and reahze that AhAMDa, Mahamid,

Hawazma and Rowahla are all important groups in Kordofan, and that Kababish and Bakkara alike claim descent from 'Abdulla

el Guhani, not to mention the obvious similarity, if not the

identity, between the names of Burton's "Banu Salim" and the Beni Selim Bakkara of the White Nile, there seems small room for doubt that the Bakkara tribes of the Sudan contain numerous ele- ments that are also common to the Beni Harb of the Hegaz^. The

latter are an Isma'ilitic tribe, originally a section of Hawazin, who,

again, are a branch of Kays 'Aylan^. In proof that some of them

did come to Egypt one may quote Sir J, G. Wilkinson. In his list

of Arab tribes east of the Nile the names of "Billee" (Beli), "Ge- haynee" (Guhayna) and "Harb" occur in close proximity^.

The fact that the Prophet once said " Of a truth among the Arabs

the worst names are the Beni Kelb and the Beni Harb^ " may explain

^ The singular of Ahamda in the Sudan is Hammadi and not Ahmadi.

^ The singular of Mahamid in the Sudan is Mahmudi and not Mahmadi.

^ Makrizi (ap. Quatremere, II, iqi) mentions Awlad Hazm as a section of the Sinbis branch of Tai in Egypt, and it is conceivable that the original Hawazma, or Hawazim, were a branch of Tai, the tribe with which the Messiria are also said to be connected. See Wiistenfeld, Tab. 6, where "Hizmir" refers to the same person

as does Quatremere's better reading of "Hazm" (i.e. jij.^- for j,^j.^), and where

"el Maschr" (i.e. jiL^\, "el Mashr" (Mishir?)), the son of Tha'aliba and great-

great-grandson of Nebhan, seems to correspond to " Messir " the traditional ancestor of the Messfria, who appears also in the nisbas as son of Tha'aliba and great-great- grandson of "Nebhan, a section of Tai" (D i, vii). Possibly, then, while certain Beni Tai detached themselves from the main tribe to wander southwards into the Sudan, others joined the Guhayna or the Harb; or possibly the opposite occurred and the Hawazma broke away from their parent stem to join the T^i • almost any

similar permutation is indeed within the bounds of possibility.

* Wiistenfeld, D and F. ^ Modern Egypt..., ii, 380.

* See Burton, Pilgrimage..., l, 247.

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